Wednesday, October 30, 2013

You don't know this guy (unless you're Ali or Annie), but he's kind of a big deal. Ted Spiker is a writer for Runner's World Magazine, and a self-titled "big guy". Over a year ago he started a Facebook group for runners who wanted to finish a 5k (3.1 miles) in less than 30 minutes. It might sound like an "eh" goal, but the pace required to do that is justbarely faster than a lot of "normal" people run. I managed to finish my sub-30 5k last fall, and cried when I crossed the finish line.

But... this normal, big-guy runner decided to challenge himself in a giantly huge, enourmously big way this year. He trained for an Ironman. And now he's going to swim, bike, run it in Florida on November 2nd. Ted isn't a crazy fitness enthusiast. He's a professor. He's a normal person... who decided to break down his own walls and do something amazing.

And the Facebook group he started put together a video for him that made me cry SO HARD (not just because I'm stalking the internet at 10:30pm and drinking wine at the same time.)

Monday, October 28, 2013

Me: You know, I get excited, then sad, then hopeful, then scared... oh... wait... no, that's just life.

It's EXACTLY like running, which is exactly like life. One day you head out and it's all birds-singing, miles flying by, pace is perfect, best run of my life. Another day you can be 2 minutes off your pace, with screaming quads, out of breath, whyyyy meeeee???? There might be vague reasons why one run (or day) is good (or bad), like hydration, sleep, nutrition, stress... but generally, it can be a crap shoot.

Except with life we tend to de-personalize it. It's easier to say, "Well, that day sucked. Thanks, Life" than it is to say, "Through no fault of my own, my pace was off." Maybe it's just the way we tend to approach the events of our day as happening 'to' us, versus the way we assume that our run is completely under our control.

Oooh. Maybe that's why the obstacle races are gaining popularity. They feel out of our control. The mud can be slippery-er, the electricity can be shocky-er, but it's something that's happening to us instead of the way we happen to the road during a road race.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Answer: No. I volunteered with DetermiNation! I cheered! I let myself be inspired by the amazing people around me!

And then I ate a pizza (heck, watching charity runners burns calories too!) came home and slept for ten hours.

Being a part of a charity makes waking up at 4am very exciting.

Being part of a charity means every red, white, and blue shirt I see makes my heart flutter. The people who have raised thousands of dollars ($1.4 million the last time I checked) because of their personal stories inspire me.

$1.4 million is SUCH a huge amount of money I was just overwhelmed by typing it. With my experience raising money, I know that the $1.4 is made up of $10.00 donations, $100 donations, even $5.00 donations. Each person handed over their precious money because they know someone whose life was changed by cancer. Every dollar is a person who had to hear, "You have cancer." That massive amount of money is made up of tiny drops of dollars given by thousands of people because of the pain and triumph they've all felt.

The American Cancer Society does good work. The people who ran the marathon for a charity do amazing work. I'm super proud to be associated with all of the positive energy and triumph that this weekend meant for so many people.

That's for my husband. Who will hate that joke when he reads it. But seriously... attitude is everything, right? So I took a week off of running in the middle of a sort-of-a training period. The weather was crappy, I felt crappy, I just took a week off. I felt horribly guilty about it (especially since I'm experiencing some serious imbalances in my caloric intake vs burn off). But I crawled back on the horse today with a five mile run.

And it felt so good, and I had so much extra time left over, that I tacked on an extra mile.

Second [semi-related] story:
I was at a 3-day class last week and one of the other students came up to me and said, "Hey, are you a runner? Because I just noticed your legs in those jeans."

She wasn't hitting on me, she was just noticing that my quads looked enormous. Thank God for Levi. But it made my day. Actually my week. Heck, that might have just made my year. That I can fool people into thinking that those are actually muscles wrestled into those size 6's... Sweet! I'll take it!!

These are all good milestones for me right now, especially since I've hung myself out on a limb professionally. I'm doing a lot of good work (I'm a massage therapist) but just not for money yet. Ok, a little money. I'm putting together a new program that integrates massage into a mental health setting. It's not crazy, but it's definitely revolutionary. And it's going through all of those stages that any amazing plan has to grow through before being born into the awesomeness that it will be. Which is making me nervous, and leaving me with large gaps of time that are unscheduled, and yeah.

I still wander around my house at random intervals muttering, "It's fine. It's going to be ok. It's fine." Because it will be fine. And if my work-ethic has anything to do with it, it's going to be fantastic. And really, really, really, will change people's lives, and the way they view hands-on therapy.